Saturday, 15 November 2014

The
Philae spacecraft is now on the surface of the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko,
a historic event. However, we are not sure about its state. It may even be
upside down after bouncing not once but twice. Telemetry seems to indicate that
it has landed three times. The comet
lander Philae is definitely on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The probe
actually landed three times with two bounces in between, mission scientists
reported early on November 13. The first image from the probe came out a little
bit later, and while incredible, immediately raised questions about Philae’s
landing site and the probe’s ability to study the new world around it. Concerns
about the lander’s solar panels and just how much sunlight they will get, and
consequently how much power they can provide the lander, are also being
discussed.

Philae is
now sitting on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The minifridge-sized lander set
itself onto the comet on November 12 and is now preparing to beam back
panoramic pictures of its environs and explore the chemistry of the dust
beneath its toes.

“We are
on the comet,” Philae project manager Stephan Ulamec of the German Aerospace
Center in Cologne announced amid cheers and applause as soon as the signal came
through at the European Space Agency’s operation center. The successful landing
marks the first time scientists have set a spacecraft on the surface of a
comet.

Philae is
on the surface and doing a marvellous job, working very well and we can say we
have a very happy lander," says Paolo Ferri, ESA's Head of Mission
Operations at ESOC today (Nov. 13).During the second lander-orbiter
communication slot, which ran from 06:01 UTC / 07:01 CET until 09:58 UTC /
10:58 CET this morning, "We had a perfect pass; the radio link was
extremely stable and we could download everything according to the nominal
plan," adds Rosetta Flight Director Andrea Accomazzo.

Here are
details:

First
analysis of the touchdown data suggests that the lander bounced twice before
settling on the surface of Comet 67P/C-G. The lander remains unanchored to the
surface, but the instruments are running and are delivering images and data.

After
touchdown at 15:34 UTC (confirmed at 17:02 CET), a clear strong signal was
received, with some breaks. Lander telemetry stabilised at about 17:32 UTC and
communication with the surface was maintained until the link to the orbiter was
lost at 17:59 UTC due to Rosetta's orbit; this was about an hour earlier than
predicted for the target landing site (most likely due to local horizon
interference).Later on 12 November, after analysing lander telemetry, the
Lander Control Centre (in Cologne) and Philae Science, Operations and
Navigation Centre (SONC, Toulouse) reported;

There
were three touchdowns at 15:34, 17:25 and 17:32 UTC; in other words, the lander
bounced.

1) The
firing of the harpoons did not occur.

2) The
primary battery is working properly.

3) The
mass memory is working fine (all data acquired until lander loss of signal at
17:59 UTC were transmitted to the orbiter).

4)
Systems on board the lander recorded a rotation of the lander after the first
touchdown. This is confirmed by ROMAP

instrument data, which recorded a rotation
around the Z-axis (vertical).

The
lander did receive some power from the solar panels on Wall No. 2, but it
appears that parts of the lander were in
shadow during the time that last night's surface telemetry were being
transmitted.

Teams are
still working to confirm the location and the overall power and thermal
situation on board. Nonetheless, the lander appears to be performing well.

2) Genes
tell tale of cat domestication:

Five DNA
variations distinguish tame felines from wild cousins

A peek
into cats’ genetic makeup may help reveal how hissing wild felines became
purring tabbies.

Five
genes involved with embryo development differ between wild and domesticated
cats, researchers report November 10 in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences. The new genetic data support a recent hypothesis about why
domesticated animals often have a juvenile appearance. ts and humans have
shared the same households for at least 9,000 years, but we still know very
little about how our feline friends became domesticated. An analysis of the cat
genome led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St.
Louis reveals some surprising clues.

The
research appears Nov. 10 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Early Edition.

Cats have
a relatively recent history of domestication compared with dogs; canines arose
from wolves over 30,000 years ago.

"Cats,
unlike dogs, are really only semidomesticated," said senior author Wes
Warren, PhD, associate professor of genetics at The Genome Institute at
Washington University​.
"They only recently split off from wild cats, and some even still breed
with their wild relatives. So we were surprised to find DNA evidence of their
domestication."

One way
scientists can understand the genetics of domestication is to look at what
parts of the genome are altered in response to living together with humans,
Warren added.The researchers compared the genomes of domestic cats and wild
cats, finding specific regions of the domestic cat genome that differed
significantly.

The
scientists found changes in the domestic cat's genes that other studies have
shown are involved in behaviors such as memory, fear and reward-seeking. These
types of behaviors -- particularly those when an animal seeks a reward --
generally are thought to be important in the domestication process."Humans
most likely welcomed cats because they controlled rodents that consumed their
grain harvests," said Warren. "We hypothesized that humans would
offer cats food as a reward to stick around."This
meant that certain cats that would normally prefer to lead solitary lives in
the wild had an additional incentive to stay with humans. Over time, humans
preferred to keep cats that were more docile.

3) Genetic
tweak gave yellow fever mosquitoes a nose for human odor:

One of
the world's deadliest mosquitoes sustains its taste for human blood thanks in
part to a genetic tweak that makes it more sensitive to human odor, according
to new research.

Researchers
report in the journal Nature that the yellow fever mosquito contains a version
of an odor-detecting gene in its antennae that is highly attuned to sulcatone,
a compound prevalent in human odor. The researchers found that the gene,
AaegOr4, is more abundant and more sensitive in the human-preferring
"domestic" form of the yellow fever mosquito than in its ancestral
"forest" form that prefers the blood of non-human animals.The
research provides a rare glimpse at the genetic changes that cause behaviors to
evolve, explained first author Carolyn "Lindy" McBride, an assistant
professor in Princeton University's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary
Biology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute who conducted the work as a
postdoctoral researcher at the Rockefeller University. Uncovering the genetic
basis of changes in behavior can help us understand the neural pathways that
carry out that behavior, McBride said.

The
research also could help in developing better ways to stem the yellow fever
mosquito's appetite for humans, McBride said. The yellow fever mosquito is
found in tropical and subtropical areas worldwide and is the principal carrier
of yellow fever, the measles-like dengue fever, and the painful infection known
as chikungunya. Yellow fever annually kills tens of thousands of people
worldwide, primarily in Africa, while dengue fever infects hundreds of
millions. The research also suggests a possible genetic root for human
preference in other mosquitoes, such as malaria mosquitoes, although that
species is genetically very different from the yellow fever mosquito."The
more we know about the genes and compounds that help mosquitoes target us, the
better chance we have of manipulating their response to our odor" McBride
said, adding that scent is not the only driver of mosquito behavior, but it is
a predominant factor.

The
researchers first conducted a three-part series of experiments to establish the
domestic yellow fever mosquito's preference for human scent. Forest and
domestic mosquitoes were put into a large cage and allowed to bite either a
guinea pig or a researcher's arm. Then the mosquitoes were allowed to choose
between streams of air that had passed over a guinea pig or human arm. Finally,
to rule out general mosquito attractants such as exhaled carbon dioxide,
mosquitoes were allowed to choose between the scent of nylon sleeves that had
been in contact with a human or a guinea pig.

In all
three cases, the domestic form of the yellow fever mosquito showed a strong
preference for human scent, while the forest form primarily chose the guinea
pig. Although domestic mosquitoes would sometimes go for the guinea pig, it
happened very rarely, McBride said.McBride and colleagues then decided to look
for differences in the mosquitoes' antennae, which are equivalent to a human's
nose. They interbred domestic and forest mosquitoes, then interbred their
offspring to create a second hybrid generation. The genomes of these
second-generation hybrids were so completely reshuffled that when the
researchers compared the antennae of the human- and guinea pig-preferring
individuals they expected to see only genetic differences linked directly to
behavior, McBride said.

The
researchers found 14 genes that differed between human- and guinea
pig-preferring hybrids -- two of them were the odorant receptors Or4 and Or103.
Choosing to follow up on Or4, the researchers implanted the gene into fruit-fly
neurons. They found that the neurons exhibited a burst of activity when exposed
to sulcatone, but no change when exposed to guinea pig odors. McBride plans to
further study Or103 and other genes that could be linked to host preference at
Princeton.

This work
provides insight into how the domestic form of the yellow fever mosquito
evolved from its animal-loving ancestor into a human-biting specialist, McBride
said. "At least one of the things that happened is a retuning of the ways
odors are detected by the antennae," she said. "We don't yet know
whether there are also differences in how odor information is interpreted by
the brain."

4) A piece
of the quantum puzzle:

While the
Martinis Lab at UC Santa Barbara has been focusing on quantum computation,
former postdoctoral fellow Pedram Roushan and several colleagues have been
exploring qubits (quantum bits) for quantum simulation on a smaller scale.
Their research appears in the current edition of the journal Nature.

"While
we're waiting on quantum computers, there are specific problems from various
fields ranging from chemistry to condensed matter that we can address
systematically with superconducting qubits," said Roushan, who is now a
quantum electronics engineer at Google. "These quantum simulation problems
usually demand more control over the qubit system." Earlier this year,
John M. Martinis and several members of his UCSB lab joined Google, which
established a satellite office at UCSB.In conjunction with developing a
general-purpose quantum computer, Martinis' team worked on a new qubit
architecture, which is an essential ingredient for quantum simulation, and
allowed them to master the seven parameters necessary for complete control of a
two-qubit system. Unlike a classical computer bit with only two possible states
-- 0 and 1 -- a qubit can be in either state or a superposition of both at the
same time, creating many possibilities of interaction.

One of
the crucial specifications -- Roushan refers to them as control knobs or
switches -- is the connectivity, which determines whether or not, and how, the
two qubits interact. Think of the two qubits as people involved in a
conversation. The researchers have been able to control every aspect --
location, content, volume, tone, accent, etc. -- of the communication. In
quantum simulation, full control of the system is a holy grail and becomes more
difficult to achieve as the size of the system grows.

"There
are lots of technological challenges, and hence learnings involved in this
project," Roushan said. "The icing on the cake is a demonstration
that we chose from topology." Topology, the mathematical study of shapes
and spaces, served as a good demonstration of the power of full control of a
two-qubit system.

In this
work, the team demonstrates a quantum version of Gauss's law. First came the
19th-century Gauss-Bonnet theorem, which relates the total local curvature of
the surface of a geometrical object, such as a sphere or a doughnut, to the number
of holes in the object (zero for the sphere and one for the doughnut).
"Gauss's law in electromagnetism essentially provides the same relation:
Measuring curvature on the surface -- in this case, an electric field -- tells
you something about what is inside the surface: the charge," Roushan
explained.The novelty of the experiment is how the curvature was measured.
Project collaborators at Boston University suggested an ingenious method:
sensing the curvature through movement. How local curvature affects the motion
can be understood from another analogy with electromagnetism: the Lorentz force
law, which says that a charged particle in a magnetic field, which curves the
space, is deflected from the straight pass. In their quantum system, the
researchers measured the amount of deflection along one meridian of a sphere's
curve and deduced the local curvature from that."When you think about it,
it is pretty amazing," Roushan said. "You do not need to go inside to
see what is in there. Moving on the surface tells you all you need to know
about what is inside a surface."This kind of simulation -- arbitrary
control over all parameters in a closed system -- contributes to a body of
knowledge that is growing, and the paper describing that demonstration is a key
step in that direction. "The technology for quantum computing is in its
infancy in a sense that it's not fully clear what platform and what
architecture we need to develop," Roushan said. "It's like a computer
50 years ago. We need to figure out what material to use for RAM and for the
CPU. It's not obvious so we try different architectures and layouts. One could
argue that what we've shown is very crucial for coupling qubits when you're
asking for a full-fledged quantum computer."

5)
Archaeologists discover remains of Ice Age infants in Alaska:

The
remains of two Ice Age infants, buried more than 11,000 years ago at a site in
Alaska, represent the youngest human remains ever found in northern North
America, according to a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences. The site and its artifacts provide new insights into
funeral practices and other rarely preserved aspects of life among people who
inhabited the area thousands of years ago, according to Ben Potter, a
researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the paper's lead
author.Potter led the archaeological team that made the discovery in fall of
2013 at an excavation of the Upward Sun River site, near the Tanana River in
central Alaska. The researchers worked closely with local and regional Native
tribal organizations as they conducted their research. The National Science
Foundation funded the work.

Potter
and his colleagues note that the human remains and associated burial offerings,
as well as inferences about the time of year the children died and were buried,
could lead to new thinking about how early societies were structured, the
stresses they faced as they tried to survive, how they treated the youngest
members of their society, and how they viewed death and the importance of
rituals associated with it.Potter made the new find on the site of a 2010
excavation, where the cremated remains of another 3-year-old child were found.
The bones of the two infants were found in a pit directly below a residential
hearth where the 2010 remains were found."Taken collectively, these
burials and cremation reflect complex behaviors related to death among the
early inhabitants of North America," Potter said.

In the
paper, Potter and his colleagues describe unearthing the remains of the two
children in a burial pit under a residential structure about 15 inches below
the level of the 2010 find. The radiocarbon dates of the newly discovered
remains are identical to those of the previous find--about 11,500 years
ago--indicating a short period of time between the burial and cremation,
perhaps a single season.Also found within the burials were unprecedented grave
offerings. They included shaped stone points and associated antler foreshafts
decorated with abstract incised lines, representing some of the oldest examples
of hafted compound weapons in North America."The presence of hafted points
may reflect the importance of hunting implements in the burial ceremony and
with the population as whole," the paper notes.The researchers also examined
dental and skeletal remains to determine the probable age and sex of the
infants at the time of the death: One survived birth by a few weeks, while the
other died in utero. The presence of three deaths within a single highly mobile
foraging group may indicate resource stress, such as food shortages, among
these early Americans.

Such
finds are valuable to science because, except in special circumstances like
those described in the paper, there is little direct evidence about social
organization and mortuary practices of such early human cultures, which had no
written languages.

The
artifacts--including the projectile points, plant and animal remains--may also
help to build a more complete picture of early human societies and how they
were structured and survived climate changes at the end of the last great Ice
Age. The presence of two burial events--the buried infants and cremated
child--within the same dwelling could also indicate relatively longer-term
residential occupation of the site than previously expected.

The
remains of salmon-like fish and ground squirrels in the burial pit indicate
that the site was likely occupied by hunter-gatherers between June and
August."The deaths occurred during the summer, a time period when regional
resource abundance and diversity was high and nutritional stress should be low,
suggesting higher levels of mortality than may be expected give our current
understanding" of survival strategies of the period, the authors write.

Jim
Carrey and Jeff Daniels reprise their signature roles as Lloyd and Harry in the
sequel to the smash hit that took the physical comedy and kicked it in the
nuts: Dumb and Dumber To. The original film’s directors, Peter and Bobby
Farrelly, take Lloyd and Harry on a road trip to find a child Harry never knew
he had and the responsibility neither should ever, ever be given.

The
Farrelly brothers produce Dumb and Dumber To alongside Riza Aziz and Joey
McFarland of Red Granite Pictures. They are joined by fellow producers Charles
Wessler and Bradley Thomas. Universal Pictures will distribute the film in the
United States, Canada and select international territories.

Olympic
Gold Medal-winning wrestler Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) is struggling in
.obscurity and poverty in Wisconsin when he is invited by wealthy heir John du
Pont (Steve Carell) to move on to his lavish estate to form a team and to train
for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Schultz seizes the opportunity, eager to step out
of the shadow of his revered older brother Dave (Mark Ruffalo), a prominent
wrestling coach and Gold Medal winner himself.

With his
vast financial resources and state-of-the-art training facility at Foxcatcher
Farm, du Pont appoints himself head coach of the team, eager to win the respect
of his peers and the approval of his condemning mother (Vanessa Redgrave).

The
dynamic between Schultz and du Pont deepens as Mark embraces his benefactor as
a father figure. But du Pont's mercurial personality and psychological gameplay
begins to weigh heavily on Mark's shaky self-esteem, undermining his abilities
on the mat. When du Pont's favoritism shifts to brother Dave — who possesses
the authority and confidence both he and Mark lack —the trio is propelled
towards a tragedy no one could have foreseen.

Popular
high school student Cayden Richards wakes from a horrific nightmare, only to
realize that he’s living it… He is changing into something vicious,
unpredictable and wild. Forced to hit the road after the brutal murder of his
parents, Cayden tries to hunt down the truth of what he is. In the remote,
mountain town of Lupine Ridge, he discovers others like him — Including the
beautiful Angelina, a young woman caught between two ancient clans of “wolves”.
And when he finally discovers the shocking truth behind his ancestry, Cayden
realizes there is only one way to save the woman he loves… a grisly fight to
the death against forces more savage than he could have ever imagined.

When
three women living on the edge of the American frontier are driven mad by harsh
pioneer life, the task of saving them falls to the pious, independent-minded
Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank). Transporting the women by covered wagon to Iowa,
she soon realizes just how daunting the journey will be, and employs a low-life
drifter, George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones), to join her. The unlikely pair and
the three women (Grace Gummer, Miranda Otto, Sonja Richter) head east, where a
waiting minister and his wife (Meryl Streep) have offered to take the women in.
But the group first must traverse the harsh Nebraska Territories marked by
stark beauty, psychological peril and constant threat.

This
Christmas, have your family join with Kirk Cameron’s family and dive headfirst
into all the dancing, celebration, feasting, imagination, and traditions that
glorify the true “reason for the season.” The movie is an engaging story that
will leave the audience with an understanding of a biblical basis for our
celebrations, and the inspiration to stand strongly against a culture that
wants to trivialize and eliminate the faith elements of this holy season. So
take in the splendor; take in the majesty; take in the story. Take it all in …
and let’s put Christ back in Christmas!

Political
News This Week:

1) Burdwan
blast: NIA team to visit Dhaka on Nov 17:

A team of
the National Investigation Agency will be visiting Bangladesh on November 17 to
brief the authorities in Dhaka and also seek cooperation of that country to
unravel all plans of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh terror outfit.

After
getting necessary sanction, a team of the NIA, headed by an officer of the rank
of Inspector General, will be visiting Dhaka to discuss the activities of JMB
cadres in Bangladesh and India, official sources said.The visit comes after the
made major headway in the case by arresting JMB's Chief commander for Burdwan
module, Sajid, a Bangladeshi national, Amjad Sheikh and Zia-ul-Haque who
allegedly procured explosives and motivated youth for terror groups.The NIA
team may also seek details about JMB's network in Bangladesh and also about the
interrogation of Sajid's brother as also two other cadres of the terror group
-- Asif Adnan and Fazle Elahi Tanjil who were arrested from Segunbagicha area
of Dhaka city in September this year.

India
will also share with Bangladesh government details of its probe for preventive
steps and necessary action needed to be taken by Dhaka to counter the threat
posed by the JMB.National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had visited Burdwan for
having a first-hand knowledge of the conspiracy being hatched by JMB to target
Bangaldesh government from Indian soil.The Narendra Modi government has made it
clear that it will have friendly relations with all neighbouring countries and
following that policy, the NIA has been asked to complete the investigation
into the October 2 blast as soon as possible so that all contours of the
international terror conspiracy are exposed, the sources said.

2) Delhi
polls: Bharti among 22 candidates named in AAP's 1st list:

The Aam
Aadmi Party on Thursday released its first list of 22 candidates fielding
former ministers Somnath Bharti, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Satyendra Jain and Girish
Soni in the Delhi Assembly elections, the dates of which are yet to be
announced.

The
party, however, has not included the name of its chief Arvind Kejriwal in the
first list. It said that it is now screening all the applicants and some names,
which have not made it to the first list, will be accommodated.Soni, Bharti,
Bhardwaj and Jain have been fielded from the same constituencies they had won
in the last assembly elections. Eight sitting members of Legislative Assembly
also figure in the list.AAP has not included any new face in the first list
while fielding 11 other candidates who fought last assembly elections but were
defeated by a close margin. "The AAP has formed a probe committee led by
party's senior leader Anand Kumar and it will look if allegation emerge against
any candidate during elections. If allegation is proved, party can even cancel
their ticket in the last moment," AAP's PAC member Sanjay Singh told media
persons.

Asked why
party then fielded Bharti, who is facing serious charges in Malviya Nagar
midnight raid, Singh maintained that the former Law Minister was innocent and
that he had gone there on request of local people and tried to help them in
busting a ‘prostitution and drug racket’.

Among the
sitting MLAs, who have again been given tickets, are Bharti from Malviya Nagar,
Bhardwaj from Greater Kailash, Satyendra Jain from Shakur Basti, Girish Soni
from Madipur, Manoj Kumar from Kondli, Jagdeep from Harinagar, Jarnail Singh
from Tilak Nagar, Vishesh Ravi from Karol Bagh, Sanjeev Jha from Burari,
Bandana Kumari from Shalimar Bagh, Som Dutt from Sadar Bazar and Commando
Surender from Delhi Cantt.The 11 candidates, who had unsuccessfully contested
the elections in 2013 but given ticket again are Sandeep (Sultanpuri Majra),
Anil Bajpai (Gandhi Nagar), Atul Gupta (Vishwas Nagar), Rajesh Rishi
(Janakpuri), Gulab Singh (Matiala), Vijendra Garg (Rajendra Nagar), Kapil
Mishra (Karawal Nagar), Jitendra Tomar (Tri Nagar), ND Sharma (Badarpur) and
Bhavna Gaur (Palam).The AAP said the candidates have been selected based on
their performances in their constituencies. "Party may also release its
second list of candidates in the next seven days," another AAP leader
Ashutosh Srivastava said.He also said that the party would fight the
forthcoming assembly elections on the issues of water, electricity, development,
health and education.

In the
last elections, AAP had selected candidates, who had attached signatures of 100
voters in their constituencies along with their applications, but it didn't
adopt such a process this time."In these assembly elections, party has
dropped the process of directing applicants to get signatures of 100 voters
attached along with their applications," Srivastava said.In the assembly
polls held in December last year, the AAP had won 28 seats in its debut
performance, but the Bharatiya Janata Party was the largest party with 32 seats
including a lone Shiromani Akali Dal nominee.

3) India's
my second home, Aung San Suu Kyi tells PM Modi:

Prime
Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday had a meeting with Nobel laureate and
Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in his first interaction with the
pro-democracy icon. The meeting at the presidential suite at Park Royal Hotel
here where the prime minister is put up, came on a day when he had a string of
bilateral meetings with world leaders and participated in the 12th India-ASEAN
summit.

Myanmar
is in the midst of a national debate on whether to allow Suu Kyi, chairperson
and general secretary of the National League for Democracy, to contest the 2015
parliamentary elections, which she is barred from at present due to a provision
in the Constitution.

Suu Kyi
had visited India in November 2012. She spent several years in India during her
early days when her mother Daw Khin Yi was Ambassador to India. She studied at
LadyShriramCollege in Delhi and also spent some time as a Fellow at the
Institute of Advanced Study in Shimla in 1987.After Modi’s meeting with Suu
Kyi, spokesman of the ministry of external affairs Syed Akbaruddin tweeted that
the Myanmarese leader told the prime minister that India was her “second home”.

4) Ahead
of trust vote, Fadnavis claims support of 140 MLAs:

The
Bharatiya Janata Party is in no hurry to engineer a split or woo legislators
from other parties at this juncture, though it is short of numbers in the Maharashtra
assembly.This is despite several legislators from the Shiv Sena, Congress and
Nationalist Congress Party approaching BJP’s top leaders on the eve of election
of the assembly speaker and the vote of confidence.Chief Minister Devendra
Fadnavis, however, claimed his government had been able to mobilise support of
140 legislators, four short of the half-way mark in the 288-member House.The
BJP has 121 legislators and its ally Rashtriya Samaj Party has one MLA.
Besides, seven independents and three legislators of the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi
have also extended their support.This apart, Peasants and Workers Party leader
Jayant Patil has assured that three legislators belonging to his party and five
other members of smaller parties are ready to support the government. The
government faces the challenge to prove a majority on the floor of the House
during confidence motion and election of Speaker, slated for November 12, the
concluding day of the three-day session.

Fadnavis
said: “I have already told my party colleagues not to entertain any suggestion
by the Congress, the NCP and the Shiv Sena members to join the BJP by resigning
from their respective parties. I have also asked party members not to organise
any meetings (of MLAs of other parties who wish to join the party) with
me.”Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar had recently said about 27 legislators
from the Congress and NCP have shown their desire to desert their respective
parties to join the BJP. “However, the
party has asked those legislators not to show any haste in quitting their own
parties,” a BJP leader, who did not want to be named, said.Another BJP
minister, who did not want to be named, said it had been the party’s view not
to attract any criticism from other parties that it was bent on engineering a
split to achieve a majority in the House. “The BJP is quite confident that it
would sail through the confidence motion, slated for Wednesday. As NCP chief
Sharad Pawar observed no legislator wants fresh elections. The BJP will be able
to muster support to run the government,” he said.

5)
Jayalalithaa disqualified for 10 years: TN issues notification:

All India
Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief Jayalalithaa is disqualified from
contesting elections for ten years, the Tamil Nadu government has said in a
gazette notification.

"Consequent
upon the conviction of Selvi J Jayalalithaa, Member of the Legislative
Assembly, she stands disqualified for being a Member of the Tamil Nadu
Legislative Assembly from the date of conviction, i.e., the 27th day of September,
2014, for the period of her sentence (four years)," the gazette
notification dated November 8 read. It was issued by Speaker of the Tamil Nadu
Assembly P Dhanapal.It also said that she "shall continue to be
disqualified for a further period of six years since her release in terms of
the existing Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951."

The
notification also said that Srirangam Assembly Constituency, represented by
Jayalalithaa "shall be deemed to have become vacant from the date of her
conviction," September 27.Although media was given to understand on
November 9 that a notification declaring Srirangam seat as vacant was issued,
only on Wednesday it has been officially released by the state government.

Also, the
details pertaining to disqualification has become known.Jayalalithaa was
convicted and sentenced to 4 years in jail besides a fine of Rs 100 crore in an
18-year-old disproportionate assets case by a special court in Bangalore.She
was released from jail in Bangalore on October 17 as per the Supreme Court
order granting her bail in the case.

6) Must
balance music with ministry: Babul Supriyo:

Babul
Supriyo says he will strive to strike a balance between music and his new job.
Quoting Swami Vivekananda, the playback singer said the PM has asked him to
continue singing as it was his first love. “Music is a noble cause and I have
to see it does not make me compromise on my ministerial work. A balance will
have to be struck,” he said after taking charge as Minister of State for Urban
Development.

On his
priorities, he said he would bring imams and Hindu priests together and
convince them to relocate temples and mosques built on encroached public
spaces. West Bengal’s sole representative in the cabinet expansion, he was
talking in the context of his home state. “I am a secular person but if a
temple or mosque is built in the middle of the road, it should be relocated and
roads can be widened for public use.”

He
attacked the Bengal government: “ With the present Trinamool government, it is
important there is a bridge between the Centre and the state government, so
that it does not come up with the excuse that there is no coordination with the
Centre.”

Supriyo
said he is consulting his predecessors Saugata Roy (TMC) and Deepa Das Munsi
(Congress).

Saradha scam: Suspended Trinamool MP Kunal Ghosh attempts suicide in jail, hospitalized:Suspended Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh, former CEO of Saradha Media Group, attempted suicide by consuming sleeping pills in his prison cell.Kunal Ghosh, in his suicide note, claimed consuming 58 pills. He was rushed to SSKM hospital where doctors washed his stomach to clear it of the sedatives. It might be mentioned that Kunal Ghosh had threatened in the court on Monday that he would commit suicide within three days if he was not granted bail and those powerful people involved in the Saradha scam were not arrested.Kunal Ghosh is the only leading politician arrested in the case and has been suspended by Trinamool Congress. Kunal Ghosh has named top Trinamool leaders for their involvement in the Saradha scam, but CBI is yet to interrogate or arrest them.Jail officials said that they had given only a strip of sedatives to Ghosh, as he had sleep disorder.

Sports News
This WeeK:

1) Indian
Super League: FC Goa hand Delhi Dynamos 4-1 thrashing:

FC Goa
got their act together after a couple of winless outings as they handed Delhi
Dynamos an embarrassing 4-1 defeat, riding on Youness Bengelloun’s twin strikes
in an Indian Super League encounter on Thursday.The victory couldn’t have come
at a better time as it kept them in the reckoning for a semi-final berth in the
cash-rich league.Bengelloun scored in the 18th and 48th minute while captain
Robert Pires and Australian striker Tolgay Ozbey scored one apiece, in the 53rd
and 60 minute respectively.

Gustavo
Santos pulled one back for the hosts, when he converted from the spot in the
73rd minute, but that was just a consolation goal as was evident from the faces
of the disappointed Delhi fans and players.

The
victory, a very important one for FC Goa, finally put an end to the visiting
side’s search for three points, their second in the tournament, while extending
Dynamos’ winless run.The Dynamos have now slipped to the bottom following four
draws, three losses and a solitary win, while Goa improved a rung to move upto
seventh spot with four defeats, two draws and as many wins in the eight-team
franchise-based tournament.The Goa outfit went ahead when Frenchman Bengelloun
found the net almost halfway into the first half.The second goal came as Andre
Santos delivered a cross for Bengelloun, which the former Paris Saint Germain
‘B’ team defended gleefully headed home.The visitors slammed the door on
chances of a Dynamos comeback when Pires converted from the spot after Tolgay
Ozbey, who was through with ball, was felled by Delhi’s giant shotstopper
Kristof Van Hout.

Tolgay
completed the rout in the 60th minute, dribbling past a series of Dynamos
defenders before successfully finding the back of the net at the JLN Stadium,
which witnessed a paltry turnout.The about 6000-odd turnout was the worst in
the tournament, which is otherwise creating new scales in in-stadia audience,
when compared to other to leagues in Asia.Bengelloun first scored off a rebound
after Gregory Arnolin’s header was kept out by the tall Dynamos goalkeeper
Kristof Van Hout. The initial move began with a Andre Santos corner that landed
on the feet of Robert Pires, who gave it to Bikramjeet Singh to make the final
cross from the right.The Dynamos had an outside chance to equalise a few
minutes later but Robert Lalthlamuana’s volley off a cross from the right
narrowly misses the right side of the post.Lalthlamuana’s approach before
taking the shot though seemed a bit casual.Besides, there was also a cross from
the right by Steven Dias but Morten Skoubo could not reach the ball in time.The
Dynamos were certainly not lacking as far as build-up was concerned but, as has
been their wont in the inaugural edition of the franchise-based league so far,
could not make it count upfront.

2) Rohit
264, Sri Lanka 251:

India 404
for 5 (Rohit 264, Kohli 66) beat Sri Lanka 251 (Mathews 75, Thirimanne 59,
Kulkarni 4-34) by 153 runs. Rohit Sharma's first ODI in 10-weeks began with a
touch of nerves. He was even kept scoreless in one Angelo Mathews maiden. By
the end of the innings, his batting had become cartoonish. There was no shot he
had not played. No part of the ground he had not exploited. No bowler who
escaped his brutality. Rohit amassed 45 more runs than any ODI batsman had ever
managed in an innings, finishing on 264 from 173 balls when he was finally
caught off the last ball of the innings. India, almost incidentally, had moved
to 404 for 5, despite having travelled at a run rate of less than six for the
first 32 overs.

Rohit's
innings was so ludicrous that the first 100 runs, which were hit at a
run-a-ball, seems achingly humdrum in comparison to the 164 that followed. The
surge had actually begun before he reached his century, when he plundered 14
runs in four balls, in Nuwan Kulasekara's 30th over. Soon after that, the ball
would be leaping off the middle of his bat with almost every stroke he offered.

There
were many incredible shots, from among his 33 fours and nine sixes, but the
most gobsmacking was the six off Kulasekara at the end of the 48th over, when
he walked across to off stump, took a half volley from about a foot and half
away from him and flicked it high over the midwicket boundary. It was the kind
of shot, and innings, that seemed in open defiance of physics.

Sri Lanka
had played a tour match against Mumbai to warm-up for the series, but little
did they know Rohit was warming-up against them. He hit 145 from 111 in that
match - his first competitive game since fracturing a finger in August - and he
has now re-embedded himself at the top of the India batting order in the most
resounding fashion imaginable.

The most
dispiriting aspect of the flogging for Sri Lanka was their complicity in it.
Shaminda Eranga had extracted a thick outside edge from Rohit in the fifth
over, and though the ball carried comfortably to Thisara Perera at third man,
he shelled the chance. Having been dropped on 4, Rohit would become the third
India centurion this series to have been reprieved early in his innings. It
makes sense, then, that since he hit a double-century, he should be dropped
twice. Seekkuge Prasanna obliged him, when he shelled another straightforward
chance off Rohit in the 46th over, with the batsman on 201 this time.

Kulasekara
had strayed too straight to Rahane, in particular, who picked him off for a
spate of leg-side fours to kick the India innings into gear, in a 14-run first
over. Angelo Mathews and Eranga delivered more disciplined new-ball spells,
claiming a wicket each inside the first 15 overs, but that is as good as the
visitors' bowling effort got. Sri Lanka's lines and lengths worsened gradually
from the 20th over onwards, until they had become almost farcical by the 35th
over.

Another
beautifully orchestrated batting Powerplay from India - between the 30th and
34th overs - brought them 67 runs, and was enough to hammer the Sri Lanka
bowlers off their rhythm for the rest of the innings. Short, wide deliveries, thigh-high
full tosses and rank long hops were presented with alarming regularity, and the
fielding was almost as woeful. Sri Lanka had not expected to begin the series
strongly, given their lack of preparation, but in these two disciplines, they
have actually worsened significantly through the tour.

Having
been joined at 59 for 2, Kohli and Rohit put on 202 brisk runs together, before
miscommunication between the wickets saw Kohli run out for 66. That wasn't even
the most astounding partnership of the India innings. When Rohit and Robin
Uthappa came together in the 41st over, the score was 276 for 4. They would put
on 128 runs in 58 balls together. Out of that, Uthappa's contribution was a
run-a-ball 16.By the time Rohit hit Kulasekara down Mahela Jayawardene's throat
at long-off, the record for most fours struck in an innings had also tumbled,
and Rohit was in possession of half the ODI scores over 200. One record he
missed out on by one delivery, was Sunil Gavaskar's record for most balls faced.
Gavaskar had made 36 not out.Kusal Perera attempted to pull a short ball from
way outside off stump and ended up scooping a catch to midwicket to collect his
second duck of the series. Tillakaratne Dilshan was still visibly out of sorts,
but he still outlived his next two partners. Dinesh Chandimal drove Roger Binny
uppishly to cover and Mahela Jayawardene was trapped in front by Umesh Yadav.
When Dilshan himself fell, giving a catch to short cover off his leading edge,
even the slim hopes Sri Lanka had of running down the total were effectively
extinguished.Mathews and Lahiru Thirimanne forged a 118-run stand for the fifth
wicket, with Mathews hitting 75 off 68, and Thirimanne making 59 upon his
return to the side. But even as the batsmen progressed briskly by usual
standards, the run-rate kept on climbing, until it was above 11, when the pair
were separated in the 29th over. Thisara came in to bludgeon 29, scoring 23 of
those off a Karn Sharma over. But the Powerplay came, and both he and
Thirimanne fell to Kulkarni, within four balls, to usher in the tail. Kulkarni
removed two more from the lower order to finish with 4 for 34, and India
completed yet another crushing victory.

3) Neymar
shines as Brazil crush Turkey:

Neymar
scored twice as Brazil continued their winning run under new head coach Dunga
with a 4-0 victory against Turkey in a friendly in Istanbul on Wednesday.The
22-year-old Barcelona forward also provided an assist to add to his brace and
was aided by a brilliant performance by Chelsea winger Willian.

Neymar
held off the attentions of the last defender to finish past Volkan Demirel
after finding himself one on one with the Turkish goalkeeper in the 20th
minute.Semih Kaya's own goal and Willian's strike just before the break gave
the visitors a 3-0 halftime lead before Neymar completed the rout in the 60th
minute with his 42nd international goal."We could have chosen an easier
team for a friendly game to get our statistics right, but Brazil is one of the
best teams in the world," Turkey coach Fatih Terim said.

"We
played against a fantastic team and gave our fans (the chance) to watch them,
but unfortunately we sometimes watched them on the pitch too."Brazil face
Austria in a friendly on Tuesday while Turkey, who are bottom of their Euro
2016 qualifying pool, host Kazakhstan in Group A on Sunday.

4)
Pakistan trounce New Zealand, win first Test by 248 runs :

Misbah-ul-Haq
became Pakistan’s most successful Test captain with a thumping 248-run victory
in the first Test against New Zealand which ended on Thursday.The victory
lifted Misbah one ahead of former skippers Imran Khan and Javed Miandad’s joint
Pakistan record of 14 Test victories.New Zealand’s No.10 Ish Sodhi delayed the
inevitable for over an hour on the fifth and final day and top-scored with a
gritty career-best 63 with seven fours
and a six before he was the last man to go.Sodhi frustrated Pakistan bid and
shared a 54-run last-wicket stand with Trent Boult before he was out leg before
wicket to fast bowler Imran Khan’s (2-37) inswinger.

Chasing a
480-run target, New Zealand was left lurching at 174-8 on the fourth day as
they failed to cope with either the spinning duo of Yasir Shah (3-74) and
Zulfiqar Babar (2-48) or the reverse swing of Imran and Rahat Ali
(2-48).Legspinner Shah had overnight batsman Mark Craig (28) clean bowled in
his first over of the day before Sodhi and Boult prolonged the innings with
some defiant batting.Sodhi swept Shah for a four and a six to reach his second
Test fifty and got a lucky escape when he gloved a sweep off Babar but
wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed misjudged the attempted catch.Pakistan took a 1-0
lead in the three-Test series, with the top-order batsmen extending the form
that had given the side a 2-0 series victory over Australia in the preceding series.The
lost only five wickets across two innings to New Zealand’s limited attack,
which was playing its first Test on the United Arab Emirates’ slow, turning
wickets.Misbah scored his third successive century, Younis Khan smashed his
fourth in five innings and opening batsman Ahmed Shehzad notched a career-best
176 in the first innings before fracturing his skull and was ruled out of the
series.Mohammad Hafeez, who was under pressure after only 48 runs in the three
innings against Australia, responded with knocks of 96 and 101 not out; his
first Test century in two years.

Playing
in the new role of a challenger, five times world champion Viswanathan Anand is
sitting pretty ahead of the fifth game of the World Chess Championship against
Magnus Carlsen.With one victory, one loss and two draws, the match is currently
tied 2-2, but a big trend seem to be favouring Anand compared to the last match
at Chennai, which the Indian had lost badly last year.

At
Chennai, too, the scores were tied after four games but the big difference was
that Carlsen had started to trouble

Anand and
the discomfiture for the Indian was evident as he lost game five and six, which
effectively sealed the match in Carlsen favour.

This time
around, it’s almost the opposite. It was a tentative start for Anand in the
first game, in which he got the complexities on the board but misplayed and
suffered a bit before drawing the game.In the second game things turned for the
worst for Anand, as yet again Carlsen established a position to his liking and
outplayed him in all departments of the game to go one up in the match.

As per
the match schedule there is a rest day after every two games and that break
changed things completely for Anand.

Contrary
to popular belief, the Indian bounced back in style, showcasing deep
preparation and caught Carlsen in a long analysed variation after which there
was no reprieve for the Norwegian.The scores were then levelled and in the
fourth game Carlsen, despite getting that nagging advantage he is famous for,
could do very little, even as Anand matched him move for move to force a draw.

Now in
the fifth game scheduled for tomorrow, Anand will again play with white pieces
and is likely to push for victory yet again.

Carlsen,
meanwhile, looked a bit demoralised at the fourth game press conference, even
though he put up a brave front.

With just
eight games to go, the pundits are not ruling out a tied result and a
subsequent tiebreaker, which will happen if the scores are level after 12 games
in this million Euros match.

While
Anand will definitely try to catch Carlsen in another preparation, the
Norwegian will definitely try to avoid it.

The
success for Anand will mostly depend on a successful opening by him.At the
moment, the trend might be in favour of the Indian but Carlsen still stays the
favourite to retain the crown, according to many regarded players.

The Supreme Court has once again adjourned the hearing of the IPL scam report to November 24 (Monday). The special Bench, after reading the 35-page report submitted by Justice Mukul Mudgal and his team, has revealed the names of BCCI president-in-exile N. Srinivasan, his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, who was team principal of Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals owner Raj Kundra and former IPL COO Sundar Raman among those probed by the panel for allegations of corruption.The top developments (in ascending order) of the IPL betting and spot-fixing case:1. The case dates back to June 2013. Aditya Verma, secretary of the Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB), filed a PIL in Bombay High Court raising charges of a conflict of interest in the Board's two-member inquiry panel probing corruption in IPL. The Bombay High Court declared the probe "illegal".2. The BCCI and the CAB went to the Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court order. Verma's lawyers said the Bombay court could have suggested a fresh mechanism to investigate the charges of corruption.3. In October 2013, the Supreme Court appointed a three-member committee, headed by former High Court judge Mukul Mudgal. The panel included additional solicitor general L Nageswara Rao and senior advocate Nilay Dutta. The Supreme Court wanted the panel to conduct an independent inquiry into the allegations of corruption against Srinivasan's son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, India Cements, and Rajasthan Royals team owner Raj Kundra. The team was also asked to probe allegations of betting and spot-fixing in IPL and the involvement of players.4. On February 10, 2014, the Mudgal Committee� submitted two reports to the Supreme court. One submitted jointly by Mudgal and Rao and one by Dutta. They also filed a sealed envelope containing 13 names against whom there were "unsubstantiated" charges of corruption. One of the names was Srinivasan.5. On March 28, Supreme Court suspends Srinivasan as BCCI president. In its interim order, the court says Srinivasan will be replaced by former cricketers Sunil Gavaskar and Shivlal Yadav. Gavaskar was given charge of IPL affairs while former Test spinner Yadav was entrusted with non-IPL issues.6. On April 15, Srinivasan files an affidavit saying the Supreme Court should reinstate him as BCCI president. Srinivasan says he is innocent and allegations of conflict of interest were baseless. He also says that he never tried to hide the real identity of Meiyappan, indicted by Mudgal committee for betting and sharing team (Chennai Super Kings) information.7. In May this year, following the panel's initial report, the Supreme Court gave the Mudgal committee greater powers to investigate the contents of the sealed envelope. Assisted by former senior IPS officer BB Mishra and Mumbai and Chennai police among others, the panel got greater investigative powers for search and seizure of relevant documents. It did not have the power to arrest. The panel was asked to submit a report by August-end.8. On September 1, the Mudgal panel seeks a two-month extension to complete its probe. The Supreme Court allows the extension.9. BCCI lawyers wants Srinivasan to be reinstated since the Board AGM was due. The Bench refused saying BCCI AGM was "not its concern." The court also referred to an earlier order by Justice AK Patnaik saying Srinivasan "could not come back as BCCI president as long as the probe is on." BCCI puts off AGM to November 20, clearly indicating that it will wait for Supreme Court's ruling on 'suspended' Srinivasan.10. Mudgal panel submits its final report to the special Supreme Court Bench in a sealed cover on November 3. Court hears case on November 10 but adjourns till November 14. The Bench reveals the names of Srinivasan, Gurunath Meiyappan, Raj Kundra and Sundar Raman among those probed. Notices will be served on them for what the court called "misdemeanour."

Book Of
This Week:

The Bankster
by Ravi Subramanian

The
uneasy calm in Greater Boston Global Bank (GB2) is shattered when a series of
murders rock the façade of the compliant and conforming bank that GB2 has built
up over the years. Who is to blame? Who is driving these intriguing and bone
chilling murders? What is the motive behind these gruesome killings? No one has
a clue.

And when
Karan Panjabi, a press reporter and an ex-banker digs deeper, he realizes that
he has stumbled on a global conspiracy with far reaching ramifications - a
secret that could destroy not only the bank but cast a shadow on the entire
nation. With only thirty-six hours at his disposal, he is running out of time
and must trust no one if he wants to stay alive and uncover the truth.

In the
racy build up to unraveling the mystery, stranger than fiction characters
emerge, faith get shattered and ivory towers come crashing down. Bankers build
their careers on trust, or so everyone thought - till the day the truth within
GB2 gets revealed. Is the banker at GB2 fast turning into a Bankster? Or was he
always one?

Spinning
an intricate web of lies, deceit and treachery, bestselling author Ravi
Subramanian is back. A master storyteller of financial crime, this is his most
chilling thriller yet.

Ravi Subramanian:

Described
as the ‘John Grisham of banking’, by the Wall Street Journal, Ravi Subramanian,
an alumnus of IIM Bangalore, is the author of five bestselling commercial
novels—If God was a Banker (2007), Devil in Pinstripes (2009), The Incredible
Banker (2011), The Bankster (2012) and Bankerupt (2013)—based on financial
crime. His latest book God is a Gamer, releases on September 12th.

Having
been a banker himself, he has a unique insight into the industry he writes
about and a flair for spinning intricate plots that keep readers on the edge of
their seats His debut novel, If God was a Banker, won the 2008 Golden Quill
Readers’ Choice Award and, more recently, The Incredible Banker won the 2011
Economist-Crossword Book Award in the ‘Popular’ category. He won the Crossword
book award for The BANKSTER in 2012.Ravi lives in Mumbai with his
Biotechnologist turned banker wife, Dharini and his fourteen year old daughter
Anusha.